Lone soon contacted Soph and told her that it was safe for her and Breena to bring the kids to the bandit castle.
The very next second, the two appeared alongside the five teenagers, startling the living shit out of the silently standing criminals.
"Lone!" Soph yelled excitedly as she hugged him and buried her face in his chest. After a few moments of enjoying his warmth, she raised her head and grinned as she looked up at him. "I protected them perfectly!"
"Is that so?" Lone replied as he stroked her hair proudly.
Breena walked through the blood-covered ground as she bobbed her head up and down. "Yes, Master. Soph did amazingly. A total of seven monsters attacked us. Only a single one was C-ranked while the rest were D or E-ranked, but Soph killed them all quickly and cleanly. I didn't even have a chance to act."
Lone smiled. "You both did great. I'll be back in a minute, okay?"
"Where're you going?" Soph asked with a pout on her face.
Lone petted her head a bit rougher. "To deal with the S-rankers. Saturn has them trapped in their little throne room." He turned to glance at the eighty or so bandits, and an iciness filled his tone as he said, "If any of them try anything, no mercy, Breena."
She bowed softly as she held her fist to her chest. "Yes, Master. I wish to test out a new skill anyway, so this shall serve as a good form of practice."
The bandits that were B-rankers could clearly feel that she was only an A-ranker. Some had ideas of rebelling when Lone left, but most could feel how powerful Soph was and were clearly against moving even slightly.
Lone nodded. "Go ahead. You got a new skill?"
Breena smiled very softly, something she rarely did. Her body disappeared into the shadows of a wall. Lone could sense her soul spreading out and before long, it had covered each and every one of the bandits.
"Shadow Snare." With that low whisper, a dark-purple hand appeared on the chests on all of the bandits and proceeded to wrap around their necks.
A menacing but distinctly female voice could be heard coming from each of their shadows, and it penetrated their minds as Breena told them, "Resist, and you will suffocate. Resist strongly and your neck shall be snapped."
Lone grinned. "That's my Breena. Only an A-ranker, but you can keep so many B and C-rankers hostage. How long does that skill last for?"
"With my current mana, I can maintain it for twenty minutes on so many people, Master," Breena answered, making the bandits sweat with fear.
"Great. Well then, I'll go handle the S-rankers. Be back in a min," saying that, Lone wandered off and entered the castle.
Hazel had a complex look in her eyes. 'This girl's barely been with Lone longer than I've been summoned, but she's already so powerful... And the worst part is, most of her strength came from herself and her hard work, not from Lone's help...'
Hazel detested Breena. She hated the girl for stealing her brother from her, but she wasn't petty enough to chalk all of her successes up to Lone's doing. She would rather accept that Breena was a genius rather than admit that Lone fawned on her more than he had already shown.
'I really hate this unique skill of mine... Sometimes... Sometimes I wish I was never summoned here and never found you, Big Bro,' Hazel silently thought.
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Lone walked into the castle's old throne room and saw four people cowering in fear as Saturn spun dangerously in front of them.
He could tell that the three men were S-rankers, however, the sole woman was only an I-ranker, which meant that she was an ordinary person. "Hahah... Even though you've got an ego, you're pretty dumb, huh? I guess that's 'cause you're young."
The three S-rankers almost passed out when they saw Lone.
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!" Kim was losing his mind.
'Shit! Should I really not've kidnapped that noble girl? Wasn't she just a baron's daughter? Why would a double-S-ranker accept a quest like one to capture to some S-rankers?' Skinny wondered in regret.
Lone approached Saturn and held out his hand. In response, the ball of death dismissed the Swordspear of Immortal Slaying and happily floated into his open palm.
"Now, what do I do with you three... I can see from your soul, girl, that you're just a normal person, so go down to the courtyard. If you know where the other hostages are, tell the short blonde-haired girl. If not, don't worry. We'll find them regardless," Lone said in a relaxed manner.
"Ah... Um... O-Okay." The woman was very confused, but this demi was clearly her saviour, so even if she had dispositions against all demi races due to her upbringing, she quickly ran out of the throne room.
'Fuck... There goes one of my bargaining chips,' Kim thought.
Lone held his chin and looked at all three of the S-rankers one by one. "You and you," he said as he pointed at Skinny and Kim, "Your souls are pretty tainted, but this other guy, his is pitch-black. I'm not good at seeing the colours of souls, but you guys stick out like sore thumbs. What on Earth did you lot do to become so blatantly evil?"
Kim saw this as an opportunity. "Skinny is a serial kidnapper and rapist, but Igor over there is a mass murderer. He would kill for the sheer fun of it. A lot of the times he'd even defile the corpses, no matter the age or sex. Me? I only killed and robbed. I'm no saint, yeah, but I'm not evil like these two."
"You cock-licking son of a bitch! I'll kill you myself!" Skinny lunged for Kim but soon fell on his face. When he looked down upon feeling a sharp pain, he saw that both of his legs had been cut off.
"You'll do no such thing. I'm going to kill all three of you, and I'll not have you waste my future stat points and exp. I'm currently deciding if I should spare any of your souls or just put them to use. A black S-ranker's soul is still an S-ranker's soul. Igor - this mass murderer and corpse defiler - actually has a decently powerful soul. It's B-ranked while you two, yours are only E-ranked, so you're walking on a very tight rope right now," Lone explained coldly.
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Skinny wanted to scream due to the pain, but he was smart enough to know that putting his lungs to use would do him no favours. "You're not here to capture us?" he managed to squeeze out.
Lone shook his head. "Nope. The quest specifically said to kill all of the bandits."
Kim glared at Skinny fiercely. "You fuckhead! This is all your fault! You and your damned dick-for-brains! Hey, Adventurer, I'll do whatever you want, why don't you just say you killed me? You can have one of my hands to prove it if you need it. I'll change my name and never commit a crime again. I can mutilate my face so I never get recognised. Whaddya say?"
"Hmm... Nah, I'm definitely gonna kill you. I can't pass up on the stat points, but I can let your-"
'Lone! I followed the mana readings of about fifty people underground in case they were bandits, but um, after finding a secret second floor to the basement that's about four-thousand-meters deep, all I found was a bunch of girls. Most of them are adults, but, em, about fifteen of them are my age-ish. What should I do?' Soph suddenly said via their telepathy.
'Oh, really? Do any of them need healing?' Lone asked with hints of anger in his voice. 'That's really deep... An underground bunker kind of thing? No wonder I couldn't sense their souls.'
'N-No... I don't think so. They all seem fine except for a few scars here or there. Um, are you upset?' Soph questioned very meekly.
Lone nodded. 'Very, but not at you. I'll be down there in a minute.'
"I changed my mind. None of you gets to keep your soul," Lone declared as he approached the three men.
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Status Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 27 Level: 1,560 [+59] Species: Foxkin Rank: SS Race: Ascending Foxkin HP: 54,370/54,370 [+8,300] SP: 147,600/174,830 [+9,600] MP: 549,650/549,650 [+3,200] WF: 1,500/1,500 Basic Stats Strength: 8,976 [+800] Vigour: 5,437 [+830] Dexterity: 7,236 [+452] Agility: 7,944 [+606] Vitality: 17,483 [+960] Luck: 589 [+12] Secret Stats Charm: 352 Charisma: 49 Magic Power: 54,947 [+302] Control: 940 Rage: 10 [+5]
"Ah, shit. I accidentally gave some ground to Void... I need to stop being so sensitive about children... But then again, I'd rather not lose that part of me just to keep a stupid Primal under control," Lone muttered as he walked back into the courtyard.
'Speaking of which, they still haven't spoken to me since the battle with Ythmagobla... I wonder when Radiance and Darkness will recover? Hopefully soon. I really need to have a chat with Sky,' he thought.
"Still, to think that one of those fuckheads had magic. That was a nice surprise," Lone said to himself as he approached the five teens.
He was quite glad to see that all of the bandits were still in place and hadn't died while trying to flee. "Good job, Breena. Do you mind using them to train the kids now while I go help Soph with the hostages?"
"Of course, Master," Breena's voice said from the collective shadows of the bandits.
Scott's eyes widened. "There're hostages? I did wonder where Soph went all of a sudden..."
Lone nodded. "Yup. About fifty of them. I'm gonna go heal them, clothe them and feed them."
He looked at Saturn and ordered it, "Protect the kids. If one of the bandits tries to kill one of them, capture his soul so I can destroy it later."
All of the men shuddered in terror as the floating orb happily hummed in response to its master. Lone grinned. "Well, I'll be back soon. Have fun. I hope you guys rank up. You'll need to if you wanna fight and survive the Mishkohns."
After he had declared that, Lone left for the basement's secret second floor.
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Reginald yawned as his finger found its way into his nose. A fierce battle ensued between the tip of his index finger and the troublesome booger that refused to vacate its cosy habitat.
Minutes rolled by as he stood there doing his duty as a gate guard. Finally, his finger was victorious in the war between man and mucus. The booger soon found itself to be expelled onto the paved road below Reginald's armoured feet.
Before he even had a moment to bask in his hard-won battle, just over fifty people appeared out of nowhere and scared the life out of him and all of the people who were lined up to be inspected.
A nine-tailed man who seemed to be a Golden Foxkin - if you could ignore his strange tails - walked towards Reginald. "You, you're the strongest guard here. Are you in charge?"
"What? Er... No? I'm no the guard captain an' I'm no one of the inspectors. Um, who're you folk?" Reginald answered to the best of his ability.
From what he could see, out of all of the people that had suddenly appeared, the foxkin was the only man. Everyone else was either a woman or a girl.
The foxkin frowned. "Oh well. I guess you'll do regardless. Whoever is in charge, tell them that these are all kidnapped woman and children. I just killed the S-ranked bandits that had kidnapped them. I've fed and healed them too, so don't worry about that. Make sure they get back to their homes. If they have none, tell the person in charge to hold onto them until I come back. I'll employ them if they've nowhere to go. Got it?"
"Uhh... Yeah?" Reginald answered a bit hesitantly.
"Good. I'll be leaving Saturn with you, so you, or anyone else who tries to harm them, are fucked. Keep that in mind." After the foxkin said that, he and one of the little girls disappeared entirely.
All that was left was the other girls and women as well as a strange floating orb. "What on Altros just happened?" Reginald asked himself.